Chapter IX - The Relationship of Godshouse and Clare Hall

Summary

The foundation of the college by Henry VI in his own person removed the need to connect with Godshouse in the charter the names of any outside persons, whether those of the Master and fellows of Clare Hall or others. This seems to be a fitting point therefore at which to consider the meaning of their mention in the earlier licences, and to explain its true purpose in the hope of sweeping away the misconceptions with regard to it which, appearing first in the latter half of the eighteenth century, still maintain their hold to-day within the college itself, in Clare College, within the university and elsewhere generally. Intimate relationship did obtain between the two colleges, but its nature has been altogether misinterpreted. It is the purpose of this chapter to set free the letters patent from their glosses, and to produce newly discovered documentary evidence which will shew the facts to possess attractions wanting in the fictions.

The king's licence to Byngham of 13 July 1439 has no parallel in the history of the university, for it is a licence not only to give land, the buildings erected thereon, and an income for their maintenance and for the support of their inmates, but one by which Byngham is authorised

1. (a) to found a separate institution of a chaplain and twenty-four scholars, with statutes and ordinances and with possessions secured from the operation of the Statute of Mortmain, for the academical purpose of training schoolmasters and also to pray for the king and the other benefactors of the house and his and their ancestors and

2. […]